Sports
Basketball

It has a general manager, it's close to getting a basketball floor at the John Labatt Centre and it will name its head coach later this month.

London's fledgling franchise in the National Basketball League of Canada is getting closer to reality, knowing full well past attempts at establishing a pro hoops team in the city basically threw up airballs.

"It's a go," the as-yet-unnamed team's general manager Taylor Brown said Wednesday. "We are definitely proceeding with this.

"It's kind of crazy how fast this has come together, but when Vito (team owner Vito Frijia) gets into something - and I've got the same mindset - he goes into it two feet first. We're not going into this thinking it's going to fail. We don't want to do that to the community.

"We did a lot of due diligence on the other groups in the league. We wanted to make sure that not only did our own group have the wherewithal to do this, but that all the other groups had the financial wherewithal as well."

Brown, who assumed his role at the end of June, said the team's goal in its first season is simple.

"To win the championship," he said, acknowledging there will be those who will take a skeptical view. "We have to prove ourselves to the community. Obviously, from Day 1 we're going to have our naysayers, but playing out of the JLC alone shows how serious we are. London has the best arena of any of the groups in the league, bar none."

The seven-team league, which opens around Nov. 1 with teams playing a 36-game schedule, will have players of a similar calibre to the NBA's Development League, Brown said.

And with each NBL team having a minimum of two Canadians, there's a chance London's entry could have some local flavour.

"Absolutely," said Brown, a former Sarnia St. Christopher's and University of Guelph player. "I've approached a few (Western grads) . . . and we have a few guys we think can cut it."

Brown said engaging the community is a priority.

"We want to make it more of an entertainment event than a basketball game," he said, adding tickets in the lower bowl will go for about $15. "We want to make it so parents can relax and we can engage the kids. Players will be available for autographs after the games and they're going to be front and centre in the community - it's in their contracts.

"Our target audience is definitely going to be the basketball groups around London - the OBA clubs and high school teams (male and female). There are a lot of basketball players in London and our players will be in these gyms, following the teams and engaging the players."

"The more kids we can have in the seats, the better," Brown said.

One major piece of the puzzle has been getting a floor for the JLC on a permanent basis. Tourism London general manager John Winston said the city is anteing up 50% of the cost of a new floor - to a maximum of $53,000 (for half) - which will have obvious economic spinoffs.

"It gives us the flexibility to host other basketball events that we haven't been able to do in the past," he said, citing the Canadian university championships, exhibitions against U.S. college teams, a Pan Am games training centre and more NBA preseason games as examples. "Plus you're looking at an additional 18 dates a year bringing in 50-odd-thousand people at a minimum of $20, $25 a head."

Brian Ohl, general manager of Global Spectrum, which runs the JLC and is paying for the other half of the floor, said an order should be made by week's end.

Winston said the city was impressed with the league's business approach, which includes a $150,000 salary cap per team.

"It's a very sound business model," Winston said. "No hyperbole, very realistic."

Ohl, too, likes what he sees as Global Spectrum wouldn't be helping shell out for a basketball floor that won't be used.

"Local ownership and the league are all going down the right path," he said. "They're very realistic, they know this is something they're going to have to grow. They know where they want to be, but they also know where they have to start."

Brown said the coach will be named before the Aug. 21 draft in Toronto. The team's name will have to wait until a fan contest.